PBL492, or the planet Platte wasn’t anyone’s idea of what a typical Tok’ra base should look like.

For instance, not only was the gate unguarded, also, no one even bothered to greet them when they gated in. In fact, not one of the local population, of which there were many, even looked up from whatever mysterious tasks they were engaged in.

Sam Carter frowned in puzzlement. Anywhere else in the universe seven people exiting the Chappa’i would be cause for alarm, especially considering that four of them were armed to the teeth.

Not on Platte, it seemed.

The world was flat as far as the eye could see, with tall buildings belonging to what looked like a massive city purpled in the far distance. Around the stargate a small obviously rural village had sprung up, quaint in its charming old worldliness and completely at odds with the advanced city on the horizon.

" Are these people Amish or something?" she asked her father, aware of Daniel’s interest as well, as he led a pale Jack O’Neill along a rutted path.

" It’s almost as if we are invisible to them. Eerie," Daniel muttered, deliberately standing in one of the plainly dressed Plattens way. Instead of reacting, the blank faced man simply stumbled around him and continued.

It was Selmac that answered them.

" In a way we are invisible to them, which is entirely the Tok’ra’s fault," he said sadly.

" Pardon?" Daniel asked, taking Jack’s arm again when he swayed alarmingly.

" They’re brain damaged," Ter’l said. " A century ago this was a booming metropolis, full of joy and laughter. I remember it well. They were a strong race, the Plattens, and extremely active in the resistance against the Gou’ald. It was a time when we Tok’ra dared to hope that we might finally turn the tide against the System Lords, after all, we hade a massive world on our side, with every human on it completely dedicated to fighting the Gou’ald along with us."

" Alas, it was not to be," Selmac finished, sharing something dark with Ter’l.

" The Gou’ald attacked?" Daniel asked, looking stricken.

" Yes they did, "Anise said, taking O’Neill’s other arm and deftly steering him around a muddy pot hole. " Destroying this world."

" How did it happen?" Daniel asked. " Through the gate?"

" No, Daniel," Ter’l said. "Back then the gate was heavily guarded." He shook his head sadly. " No, the Gou’ald used an entirely different method."

He pointed up at the dark clouds above them. " You obviously can’t see them, but Platte is ringed with early warning satellites, made long ago especially to detect the Gou’ald. Missile platforms still ring this world as well, any of them more than capable of taking out the largest of Gou’ald ships." He shook his head slowly, admiration etched on his features.

" The Plattens were amazing. They knew what was happening with the System Lords, how they were conquering world after world, and were absolutely determined that no Gou’ald was ever going to set one foot on Platte."

Ter’l traded a look with Anise before continuing.

" So they encamped an army around the gate, positioned their space platforms to detect anything heading towards them, and declared war on Ra."

" They…? Holy…" Sam said, her eyes wide. " What happened?"

" They lost, Samantha," Selmac snarled. " That is what happened." He gestured to the incurious people. " They are all that are left of what used to be a vibrant people."

" Oh God," Sam said in a chocked voice. " How did…?"

Selmac sighed and steered them towards a small tavern. " This is going to take time to explain, and I feel that you deserve to hear it. Come."

The tavern was dark, with fat candles on each table giving out adequate light for their purpose. Settling down around a large wooden table, they waited patiently for Selmac to continue.

" Ra was upset. He wanted Platte pretty badly. A world this big, almost the size of earth, would produce a vast amount of slaves. The problem was how. The stargate was heavily guarded. So much so that even his elite Horus guards were incapable of getting through. To make things even worse, the sophisticated satellites of Platte detected his ships, again and again."

" We all thought it was impossible to attack Platte," Ter’l said.

" Well, everyone was wrong, weren’t they?" Anise said, watching the barman’s blank eyes with something akin to horror on her face.

" True," Selmac said slowly. He abruptly turned to Samantha Carter.

" What happens to an object at velocity in space?"

She frowned, her agile brain trying to find a loophole in what was essentially a very simple question to answer.

" It continues infinitely, unless it impacts with another object."

" Like Platte," Freya said darkly, her musical voice so different to Anise’s

Daniel looked sick. " Are you telling us that Ra used some sort of weapon, fired from deep space?" he asked.

" He did," Freya confirmed, her face bitter. " He used a biological agent, something that no one here had any defense against. He loaded this weapon into tiny needle like objects and fired them at Platte.

" Didn’t the Plattens realize what was happening and stop them?" Sam asked.

Freya shook her head. " They tried, believe me, they tried. There were just too many of them."

" They were also too small for the orbiting platforms too see accurately." Ter’l said, looking at Freya sadly.

" I was one of the first Tok’ra to respond to their distress calls," Freya continued, " but by then it was already too late. When we arrived, the virus had already done its job. Most of the Plattens were dead. The survivors were wandering around, brain damaged by this weapon, of which not a trace now existed, not in the soil or anywhere else."

She shuddered, clutching herself, nodding gratefully when Selmac gestured for the barman.

" Ra had succeeded. Not only had he destroyed any resistance to the Gou’ald in this quadrant of space, but he had also made the humans of Platte useless to both Gou’ald and Tok’ra."

She pointed at Jack O’Neill, staring vaguely at the flickering candle flame. " As O’Neill will attest when he recovers from prish’nala, a true blending is a match of two sentient consciousnesses. In the case of the humans of Platte, this was no longer the case. No Gou’ald, Tok’ra or otherwise, can live inside a brain damaged host."

" Freya is right," Ter’l said sympathetically. " Ra had done the unthinkable, destroying an entire world of potential hosts just because he couldn’t have his way."

"Truly the behavior of false gods," Teal’c said, his deep voice startling them all. " They will always destroy what they cannot have."

" True," Ter’l said, the word a sigh. " All we could do is guide the survivors, help them relearn the rudimentary skills. " He shook his head, lost in memories. " The great cities of yesteryear were gone for good, the joy and laughter gone for ever."

" This is all that remains."

" The way forwards hasn’t been easy," Freya said, her voice poignant. " Not for the Tok’ra, not for the survivors, and especially not for the Plattens that happened to be offworld when this tragedy happened. Somehow, thank the gods, we have persevered."

She shivered, gratefully accepting a foaming cup of something that looked like beer from the expressionless barman.

Daniel was almost certain that Freya was Platten, but the barman interrupted him before he could ask, setting down heaped plates full of odd-looking sandwiches.

" I suggest we eat before we do anything else," Jacob Carter said, smiling at his daughter. " Sammie, can you help Colonel O’Neill with his food? I don’t think he is back with us yet."

" Ss okay Teal’c," Jack said softly as Teal’c started to cut his sandwiches into bite-sized pieces. 

" I’m here, sort of."

" Glad to have you back," Jacob said. " Once we’ve eaten, we’ll discuss how to get to Nit." He placed some brightly colored pieces of what looked like plastic in the barman’s hand.

" Shis’ta?" Teal’c asked, surprised. " You use the currency of Chulac on this planet?"

" We use the same currency on all planets, Teal’c," Ter’l said dryly. " Gou’ald and Tok’ra alike. It saves us from carrying bagfuls of different currencies with us wherever we go."

"Very practical," Jack said slowly. " But then, the Tok’ra high council always were very practical, like hiding the whereabouts of this Wadjet from everybody."

" I’m sure they didn’t know," Jacob said placatingly.

Ter’l nodded in agreement. " I’m sure they didn’t. They all knew that I had made the pursuit of Wadjet my life’s work. Had they known that she had been hidden along with the book of light, I’m sure that someone would have mentioned something."

" So, do you actually know where this book of the Gou’ald, this book of light is actually hidden?" Daniel asked, his eyes bright.

" I believe I do," Ter’l said slowly. " Not that anybody has ever been there to check."

" So we might just be barking up the wrong tree? Oh, that’s just peachy." Jack said angrily, throwing a sandwich back on his plate.

" We are 90% sure that the book is on this planet," Selmac said after a long pause for a translation from Jacob. " Sometimes inaction is the best form of defense, O’Neill. We did nothing to indicate that the book was on this planet, allowing the Gou’ald to conclude that the book was hidden elsewhere.

" Oh clever," Jack said sarcastically. " Just remember that the 10% can trip you up time and again."

" We’ll find out when we gate to the planet," Selmac said soothingly.

That got O’Neill sitting upright, and fast. "Gate?" he said silkily. " I thought there was no gate to this planet. Have you been holding out on us?"

Selmac smiled thinly. " Not at all. I believed that too. However, I spoke to the high council before leaving earth for here. They have given me an address that might be for Nit. The only way for us to find out is to dial the address and see."

" That means leaving Major Carter and Daniel this side, just in case the legends of a Gou’ald infested world turn out to be true," O’Neill mused to himself.

" Teal’c too," Ter’l said. " I have no idea what an unattached Gou’ald would do to a Jaffa, and I really don’t want to find out the hard way."

" They could all submit to being blended and go with us," Anise said suddenly. " I cannot see why, with all the unattached Tok’ra we have, the rest of the Tau’ri don’t help."

" Because it is against orders," Sam said slowly, looking at her father. " We have to be half dead before we could even think of being blended. Like Colonel O’Neill was."

" So you and Daniel would rather grow old and die than help my race?"

" I have no choice," Sam said, her face stricken.

Anise gave a very unladylike snort. " Then I will tell you this, Major Samantha Carter of the Tau’ri, if what it takes is for you to be near death for you to be blended, then give me your weapon and I will make it so."

" Gee, thanks Anise," Sam said, moving her plate with a finger. " I’m touched."

" Ladies," O’Neill said with a grin. 

" Whilst my first instinct is to sit back and be entertained, I know that we have more pressing things to do, like get to the planet Nit, get the book and the old Tok’ra, that’s even if she is a Tok’ra, and bug out again."

" She’s a Tok’ra, that I guarantee," Ter’l said rising to his feet. " But you’re right. We’ve been fed and watered and now it is time to go."

Jack turned to his team, his voice quiet. " Listen up kids. If I am not back in 24 hours, get Ferretti and SG2 here. Use chain mail or whatever you can to protect yourself and come and get us. Only rely on the high council as a last resort."

He reached into a pocket on his jacket and pulled out two anti-nausea tablets that Dr Fraiser had given him to combat the Pr’sh’nala, or gate sickness, and took them dry, grimacing at the taste.

" Now I’m ready," he said rising.

" Are you going to be okay?" Sam Carter asked her C.O. quietly on the way back to the gate.

He scowled, nevertheless gave her a humorous glance. " I should be, thanks for asking. It gets easier each time I do this. His eyes flashed, " Or rather, it gets easier each time we do this."

She smiled, stopping at the gate as it opened into its blue loveliness. " Give Tofu my love," she murmured.

His smile was wistful as he watched Ter’l, Selmac, and Anise enter the event horizon.

"Just Tofu?" he asked softly.

He was gone before she could formulate a reply.

'''

Falling.

Jack O’Neill had this really bad feeling. It felt like he had jumped and the parachute had failed to open. Maybe this was hell. It sure felt like it, what with being pitch black and very hot. So this was it.

Or maybe not.

Frantically, as he had been taught time and again, he went through the litany of what to do when your parachute, and the reserve didn’t open.

It mainly consisted of getting his feet facing the ground and kissing his ass goodbye. 

Oh yes, and don’t forget to roll when you hit the ground, that’s assuming than you can from the crater your body leaves on impact.

At least they managed to beat Pr’sh’nala he thought darkly.

'''

To his credit, he didn’t lose consciousness, despite being in great pain. He lay there, staring up vaguely at the weird star constellations for a while, watching a fat moon pull its bulk over the horizon, and wondering what had happened to Tofu. Finally he felt the tiny Tok’ra stir.

Jack tried to answer, tried to formulate the words, but couldn’t. All he could do was give Tofu a picture, a picture of a stargate surrounded by nothingness. 

Thankfully this was all the young Tok’ra needed.

Jack felt Tofu start to take over, his pain diminishing as Tofu took it on, allowing him to finally…sleep.

" Anise, Ter’l, Selmac?"

Silence greeted Tofu’s frantic cry, an ominous silence, considering that he could feel his fellow Tok’ra all around him. If they were unconscious and badly hurt, then it was not inconceivable that they would die. A Tok’ra could heal his host, not the other way around.

" Anise?"

He felt around, feeling the softness that could only be her hair, prodding her gently.

" She is dying," a sad voice said. Freya.

" Then help me," Tofu said through gritted teeth. " Find Selmac’s back pack. He has a healing device you can use."

" I cannot use that," Freya said sadly. " I am not strong enough."

" I can," Tofu snarled, " so give."

He saw her slowly reach a hand towards a crumpled figure that had to be Selmac, until she grasped his pack. Then, groaning at the effort, she pushed the pack towards Tofu.

" Here," she said eventually, sounding exhausted. " I can do no more."

Tofu knew that Jack had broken both legs and had ruptured a lung, making any movement difficult. Oh sure, he could heal him, but it would take time, something he knew his fellow Tok’ra didn’t have. One look at the pinched look on Freya’s face told him that. The problem was, the pack was still out of reach, and his own pain was so bad, he didn’t think that he could move. Not without some of the pain spilling over to Jack.

" Don’t mollycoddle me," a faint voice said. "And use your brain. I have morphine in my pack. Use it."

Tofu smiled. A rictus of a smile that made Freya stare at him oddly.

" Hang in there Freya," he said softly, smiling as she frowned, obviously trying to translate his Tau’ri slang.

Unconsciously biting his lip, he rummaged in his backpack, searching for the distinctive square shape. 

Then he had it, and tore it open.

" Oh hell, now what do I do?" he asked softly, hopelessly. The pack seemed to be filled with glass tubes.

" Jack?" he asked, but his host was unconscious.

" Oh come on, this pack must be moron proof," he muttered to himself frantically as Freya’s head hit the ground with a thud. Praying that he was right, he took the first ampoule from the pack, injecting himself with a frustrated hiss. Damn, this had better work, or they were all dead. Including him, of an overdose.

Somehow this seemed extremely funny, making him chuckle, before realization set in. The morphine was working. Smiling to himself, he pulled his body to Selmac’s pack fumbling inside for the healing device’s distinctive shape, pulling it out with a cry of triumph.

Now for Selmac, before Sam killed him.

Fitting the device over his hand, he slowly ran its healing light over Selmac’s crumpled form, starting at his head. After a while Tofu began to feel dizzy, and he realized with a shock that the device was draining his own minimal life force. Gritting his teeth he continued, over Selmac’s hips and down his legs, smiling as the broken bones knitted with small cracking sounds.

Once that was done, and he could do no more, only then did he allow his body to topple over into the sand.

He was finished.

He lay in the sand with his eyes shut, feeling his life force ebb from him with every breath, hearing his breathing become shallow as he gasped for life giving oxygen with a lung that refused to work anymore, the other irretrievably damaged in his fall. He felt he should apologize to Jack, to explain to him why it seemed appropriate that the others be saved at the cost of his own life, but somehow he knew Jack understood. And approved.

Then, as if from a great distance away, he heard the voice of Selmac.

" Hold on, Tor’fu. " For just a little while longer."

'''

Tofu awoke to heat. A kind of mind-numbing heat accompanied by brilliant, almost white sunshine that immediately made him reach for his, or rather Jack’s sunglasses.

He sighed in relief as the glare immediately became bearable, causing someone to chuckle in amusement.

" You should be able to adjust your own eyes, not allow some cute Tau’ri invention do it for you," Ter’l said, sat perched neatly on a nearby rock.

" I tried," Tofu mumbled, gingerly sitting upright. " It didn’t want to work."

" That’s because of the Tau’ri medicine still in your blood stream," Selmac said with a smile, offering Tofu his hand and pulling him to his feet. " Another Tau’ri invention I heartily approve of. "

The smile remained, but the eyes were serious as Selmac gave Tofu a close scrutiny.

" How do you feel?" he asked softly.

Tofu grimaced. " Like I was in a serious accident and lived to tell the tale."

Selmac laughed. " Guess what, you were. And how is Jack?"

Tofu’s smile slipped. " Not too good. It was him who hit the ground, not me. Although you have healed us, he is still pretty shaken up."

" Thank the stars it was him, and not you that hit the ground, friend Tor’fu," Ter’l said. "Had you been in charge instead of your host, then we would have all died."

" As you may have gathered," Tofu said wryly, " Jack had morphine in his pack. This morphine helped me reach the healing device…"

" Which you should have used on yourself first," Selmac said.

The young Tok’ra dropped his gaze. " I considered you to be more important," he mumbled.

" Jack isn’t," Selmac admonished. " He is important to my Host, and important to his team. Never forget that."

" And to the Tok’ra?" Tofu asked softly.

Selmac squatted down next to Tofu. " To us too," he said thoughtfully, " Although he really can be a right pain in the Mich’ta."

" He has this loyalty to Earth," Tofu said slowly. " A loyalty, I cannot, and will not break."

" You realize then that you may never gain the full trust of the Tok’ra high council?" Ter’l said.

" I know. But then again, Jack never liked them anyway," he said wryly.

Selmac gave a bark of laughter and pulled him to his feet. " No truer word said, my young friend."

He was abruptly serious, crouching as something caught his eye, his well-honed team following suit.

" Selmac?" Ter’l said from his prone position. " What did you see?"

" A reflection," Selmac said thoughtfully. " The sun hitting off of metal. Definitely not a natural occurrence." He gestured to a range of hills in the far distance. " I saw it at the base of those hills."

Anise carefully stuck her head above the sand dune they had huddled behind and stared at the distant hills with a jaundiced eye. " Please don’t tell me that you propose to have us hike to there. In case you hadn’t noticed there is nothing but sand out there."

" So?" Selmac asked, puzzled.

" I’m thinking about Freya’s complexion," she moaned, making the other’s grin.

" You chose a female body," Selmac said, " so live with it. Besides, I’m sure that you can heal a little sunburn."

She snorted. " Sunburn? Freya will need more help than a quick cure for sunburn in this heat."

Selmac traded looks with Ter’l. " We are going," Ter’l said at last. " With or without you, although I think that it would be a shame to find the book of light without you."

" What do you care?" she said snippily, nevertheless getting to her feet. " All you want is to see some sign that this Wadjet actually existed."

Ter’l’s eyes flashed. " She existed. That I can promise you."

" Then let us go and find out for ourselves," Selmac sighed. " I swear, the Tau’ri sense of bad behavior seems to be rubbing off on us." He turned to Tofu. " Ready?"

Tofu shook his head regretfully.

" Sorry but no." He hastily continued before Selmac could open his mouth.

" Jack says that we have a more urgent mission at this moment to complete. " He gestured up at the precariously balanced Stargate. " Jack told the rest of SG1 to come on through with SG2 if they hadn’t heard from us within 24 hours."

Selmac nodded, realization dawning, along with horror.

" Do you think that you can get back up there in what little time there is left?"

Tofu looked grim. " I’m going to have to. The alternative, that both SG teams fall to their deaths, is not an option I want to contemplate."

Selmac gave him a light slap on his shoulder. " So climb already," he said, sounding eerily like his host.

'''

Life was unfair, Tofu thought half an hour later. He was not the one who had all the mountain experience, his host was. But would he come out and take over? Hell no.

" And experience the Sahara desert during a heat wave? I think not," Jack said comfortably. "Besides you have all the climbing information I have, and you’re younger and stronger than I am." Tofu would have growled audibly at that, but didn’t want to waste his breath.

Suddenly Jack made his hand freeze. " Do you mind?" Tor’fu yelped. " In case you hadn’t noticed, I have two precarious hand holds at best, and it’s a hell of a long way back down."

" This rock has been blasted," Jack said, oblivious to Tofu’s distress. " See?" He nodded with his chin to two dark gray colors in the cliff. " Someone bored tunnels down onto the actual rock strata and lowered explosives into those holes. The combined explosives sheared the entire rock face away."

" That’s great Jack, Tofu said sarcastically. " Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to continue to the top, where if we’re really lucky, we’ll find a DHD."

"Think positive," Jack said. " If the…Nit are here, they wouldn’t have wanted to destroy their only means of escape."

" No," Tofu said brightening as realization crept in. " No they wouldn’t. However, they would have wanted to protect the book, hence the stargate facing nothingness."

Jack sounded smug. " That’s right my apt pupil, which gives us our first indication that the Nit are indeed here…somewhere."

" Hopefully Wadjet is here as well," Tofu grunted, pulling himself through the empty Stargate to lie in an exhausted heap. " After all this, she had better be."

" Why not?" Tofu said, sitting up cautiously. " They both needed to be hidden from the Gou’ald, Ra in particular, so why not…Holee smoke!"

'Holy smoke?' Jack said amused. " I thought I had taught you better swear words than that." His voice trailed off as he saw what Tofu saw.

" Okay," he said, after a moment’s stunned silence. " It’s a bit pretentious, I grant you, but at least it’s here."

" There is that," Tofu gulped, getting to his feet to stare at what his brain was still struggling to comprehend.

The stargate stood on an artificially flat plateau. What told Tofu that it was artificial, besides the obvious clue of the Ancient’s stargate, was the DHD.

And, oh boy, what a DHD it was.

Someone long ago had stripped the functional outer layer of the DHD away and replaced it with…

" It looks like highly polished gold," Jack said, " But it’s probably Naquadah." He reached out Tofu’s arm and traced the symbols. " These seemed to have been replaced with some sort of crystal, giving the whole DHD that shimmering look."

"Stunning," Tofu breathed, standing in front of it.

" Stunning or not," Jack cautioned, " I hope it works. Because if it doesn’t, then a lot of good people are going to gate in and fall to their deaths."

" It will work," Tofu said, "It has to."

'''

There were only so many ways to keep yourself busy in a twenty-four hour period, Major Samantha Carter reflected, staring miserably at a Fahmat Board one of the villagers had obligingly supplied.

Scratch that. There were only so many times that one could lose against a smug, all knowing, Jaffa in a twenty-four hour period.

" Jaffa takes queen," she sighed, knocking her queen on its side before Teal’c could do it for her. " I know."

" I believe my victory is tempered by your air of distraction," Teal’c said quietly, trading a quick glance with Daniel.

" No, really?" she asked sarcastically. " Of course I’m distracted. We’re into the last hour of the 24 hour grace period the Colonel asked for, and so far no one has returned told us to stand down."

Major Lou Ferretti hunkered down next to her. " The Colonel should be okay," he reassured her. " He has a Tok’ra on board now."

Carter nodded." Sure, but will the Tok’ra be okay?" She shifted to take in all three men. "Guys, Colonel O’Neill was worried about their reception. If he hadn’t been, he would never have…"

The first chevron on the stargate locking with a clunk interrupted her conversation.

" What the heck?" She locked glances with Ferretti.

" O’Neill?" he said with a raised eyebrow.

" Let’s hope so," she said. " Nevertheless, let’s take up a defensive position round the gate, just in case."

He nodded. Technically speaking, he outranked this fiery blond woman, him being a Major for far longer than she had, but this was SG1’s mission, not his.

" Behrens, Taylor, Jackson, go left. O’Connell, Teal’c, you’re with me," he snapped, pleased to see SG1 and 2 mesh flawlessly. They were completely hidden and ready for action before the third chevron locked.

All the members of SG1 and 2 were veterans of many skirmishes with the Gou’ald, and they waited out the next four chevrons with an almost Zen-like calmness. Finally the wormhole established with a snap, and they tensed for action, only to have absolutely nothing happen.

" Steady…" Ferretti breathed, keeping both eyes firmly on the gate. " Don’t let our guard down." They were all counting now, counting down the allotted time to when the gate would snap off, their hearts in their mouths, when suddenly a wind milling figure shot through at such an acute angle, he completely missed the steps to the gate, crashing heavily into the bushes to one side. A moment later the gate shut down, leaving a profound silence behind, in which loud inventive cursing could be heard.

" It’s Colonel O’Neill sirs," Lieutenant Behrens said, somewhat unnecessarily.

'''

" So, I activated the stargate, worked all the angles out, and took a running jump at it," Jack O’Neill said ten minutes later, placidly staring at something Ferretti swore was non-alcoholic, but tasted just like a Millers. Both teams were sat around the same table they had occupied earlier, complete with a fresh batch of wedge shaped sandwiches.

" So now what sir?" Ferretti asked.

" Now you go back to earth and find us ten large safe parachutes," O’Neill said with a stretch.

Ferretti rose to his feet. " Yes sir," he said.

O’Neill raised a long finger. " That’s not all, Lou," he said with a smile. " You’ll also need to procure some climbing gear, as well as ten sun hats, about a dozen water bottles, and sun cream - protector factor 50."

Daniel raised his eyebrows. " Heat like Abydos?"

Jack grimaced. " Worse, Danny boy. Far, far worse."

'''

" Holy Hanna," Samantha Carter said five hours later, staring around at the desert whilst pulling her parachute towards her to be stowed somewhere. " When you said it was hot, you sure weren’t kidding sir."

Jack grinned at her from his position behind the same dune that Tofu had hidden behind earlier. " This isn’t hot, Carter. This is early morning. Just wait ‘til noon.

He took masochistic delight in seeing both SG units turn and stare at him, aghast.

" You mean…?" Ferretti said faintly.

" Does it get hotter? Gee, let me think…Yes it does, Lou," O’Neill said with a grin.

" Luckily for you, you have the easy part. All I need for SG2 to do is hold the gate. Abseil back up, chipping in handholds whilst you’re at it, and dig in. "

Ferretti saluted, looking relieved. " Yessir."

"And if we’re not back in 12 hours, send in the marines." He gave Ferretti a dark-eyed glance. 

"Literally. If we’re not back in 12 hours, call in SG3 to back you up, and come and fetch us."

"Yessir," Ferretti said again.

"And don’t let anyone in I won’t like."

"No sir."

" On the other hand," Jack reflected, staring around at the bleached bones that littered the base of the cliff. " Let them in, and dispatch the ones that survive."

" Yes sir," Ferretti said gravely. " And SG1 will be?"

O’Neill gave a faint grin. " SG1 will be hiking to the base of those distant hills in search of the Tok’ra." He smiled as Daniel groaned. " Look on the bright side. At least the place isn’t crawling with loose symbionts looking for hosts."

" That’s one myth down," Daniel agreed. " Although I can’t, for the life of me, see why this piece of information can help us."

" You don’t need to bring the chain mail with," Jack said with a grin.

Daniel’s pack hit the ground with a metallic thud. " I’m feeling better already," he said.

'''

" Hot. So hot, that not only could we fry an egg, we could bake bread to go with it. Hell, all we need do is stick the pan on the ground right next to me, wait ten minutes, and presto, baked bread."

Sam glared at Daniel for a moment before resolutely facing forwards again. Maybe if she were really, really lucky, Daniel would shut up.

She wasn’t that lucky.

" Why, sauna’s aren’t this hot, and I really like sauna’s. You know why? Because I can always take a nice cooling shower whenever I feel too hot."

" Here, on the other hand…"

" We have a planet that may be over run by the Gou’ald at any moment," Teal’c said patiently.

"A planet that may contain a book that tells us of the common ancestry of the Tok’ra and the Gou’ald, and how their differences came to be. Is that not a worthy reason for trudging through what is a relatively small distance compared to other distances you have hiked on planets past?" Teal’c asked.

"Or perhaps the heat is indeed too great for you. If that is in fact the case, I would feel honored if you allow me to carry you."

" Good one," Sam thought, waiting expectantly to hear Daniel’s response.

" Was that sarcasm I just heard?" Daniel squeaked in an outraged voice. " It was, wasn’t it?" He looked like he was going to explode with rage for a moment before deflating with a rueful smile.

" I’m being an ass, aren’t I?" he asked.

Teal’c raised a calm eyebrow. " No, Doctor Jackson, you are not a stubborn four legged Tau’ri creature. You are, however, a stubborn two-legged Tau’ri creature."

"One I find just as annoying as the first variety."

Daniel shook his head with a laugh. " Hey Jack," he called to the man on point. " I think that Teal’c has finally mastered the art of sarcasm."

" Jack approves," came the distinctive two-toned voice of Tofu. " He would tell you himself, but it is a bit hot for him, so he has left me in charge for a while."

The silence in Tofu’s wake was profound.

Finally, Daniel sighed and gave a rueful laugh. " Gotta have one of those symbionts fitted, I tell ya. Preferably the luxury model. You know, the one with air conditioning?"

Finally, the destination that Selmac had pointed out to the others came into sight, causing Tofu to sink bonelessly to the ground, the others following suit.

"Holy Hannah," Carter murmured, wiggling her body until she lay next to him. "That is one hell of a cave."

" No kidding, Daniel said, reaching for his binoculars. " Imagine how many years it took for them to complete that?"

" Um," Tofu said, although truth be told, he was just as stunned as the rest of them.

The cave was massive, and definitely the origin of that bluish smudge that had caught Selmac’s eye. However, being a massive cave was the least of its attributes. Someone, or more than likely, someone’s, had then proceeded to carve the most exquisite pictography into the cave entrance. The main theme seemed to be snakes, snakes that roiled and twisted over and around each other in a rainbow of colors, making the entrance to the cave blaze with light.

" These people do indeed seem to be the Nit," Teal’c said calmly. " Who else but they would spend so much of their days carving Gou’ald symbionts into the very walls?"

" Gou’ald…" Daniel took another closer look at the cave entrance. " Oh."

" And the colors, they’re beautiful." Carter murmured, proving to everyone that she was indeed, a female under all that khaki. She pointed up to a large carving that shimmered in the sunshine. 

" If I ever get married, I want the hall decked out in that particular shade of pink," she whispered.

"I’ll make sure I remember," Jack said quietly, smoothly taking charge again and making her redden.

He raised his voice.

" Okay people. Selmac, Ter’l, and Anise entered this cave, and have not returned. Nor are they answering their radios, although how much of that may be due to the cave system is debatable. Let’s stick together, and more importantly, stay alert."

'''

The cave was as deep as it was grand, with massive stalagmites and stalactites, long since joined, giving the cave a look rather like the interior an ancient gothic building, full of columns of white marble. And everywhere the carvings continued, under their feet and above their heads, all around them, glowing with what seemed like a type of pink phosphorescence, sending Daniel, and to a lesser degree, Carter, into raptures of delight.

The cave was empty. Eerily empty as far as the eye could see, and somehow the carvings managed to muffle all sound, making Jack trade a dark look with an equally as alert Teal’c.

Selmac was a canny operator, and Jacob had been a General in the air force. If he were able, he would have reported his findings by now, or at least left a clue for whoever came after them. The mere fact there was nothing but carved symbionts as far as the eye could see, sent the hairs rising at the back of his neck.

" Caution, people," he murmured. " I really don’t like this place."

Daniel gave him a bright-eyed stare. " Too many snakes?" he asked.

Jack grunted. " One is more than enough, believe me."

Daniel grinned. " Well, you can always…Good grief."

They all stood dead still, staring in amazement. Suddenly, out of the gloom, the rear wall of the cave had come into view, and given them a sight like none other.

Gone were the Gou’ald motifs.

No, the rear wall of the cave was pure Egyptian. Or Abyssinian?

Jack stared at the massive wall with narrowed eyes as Daniel walked towards the wall with murmurs of delight.

The wall was dazzling, made of the same type of polished Naquadah and crystal that the DHD had been made of, the pink phosphorescence that surrounded them making the whole wall shimmer. What worried him was the lack of movement. Surely, by now these mysterious Nit must know that they have more visitors? Why then not show themselves? Unless they had something to hide?

Or more than likely, something to protect.

He nodded, feeling better, watching as Daniel and Carter began walk along the wall, an extra vigilant Teal’c keeping pace with them.

That was probably it. They were just as cautious of them, as they were of the Nit.

It still didn’t explain the lack of contact with Selmac and the rest, but it did seem to fit.

A cry from Daniel sent him running.

" Jack," he said, eyes bright. "As far as we can tell, there are four doors set into the wall."

Jack frowned. Four?

"Oh?" he said cautiously. "Why four?"

Daniel shook his head. " I haven’t a clue." He slowly walked along the wall, a half smile on his face as he pointed them out. " See, they are here, here and…here."

" And the fourth one?" Jack asked, frowning.

" The one with the door knocker?" Daniel asked, grinning.

Sometimes there were great advantages to having at least one member of SG1 that had to obey his commands.

" Carter?" he growled.

She glared at Daniel and led him to a section of the wall that looked just the same as all the others, apart from one distinct difference.

This one had an honest to God doorknocker attached to it, something very similar to the one he had seen in castles in Germany when he had been stationed there.

" What the heck?" he muttered.

" My thoughts exactly sir," she said.

He took a step back and regarded his team gravely.

" Guys, we don’t know what we’ll find beyond this door, but if they’re inviting us to knock, that’s just what we’ll do." He reached for the doorknocker. "Be vigilant."

That was the last thing he said for quite some time.

'''

For Daniel, stood slightly apart from the others, what happened next seemed almost surreal. No sooner had Jack’s hand reached the doorknocker than an intense beam of white light shot out of a recess in the cave ceiling, illuminating him in an aura of color.

Jack instantly crumpled bonelessly to the ground. The instant Daniel and the others moved to help; they too were illuminated with their own beams of light.

" Crap," was Daniel’s last thought, before the darkness rushed in, " I really wanted to translate that wall."

'''

Her voice was light, sweet.

" Ssh, lie back. It’s all right now. The Gou’ald cannot harm you anymore. You are free now."

For a moment, Daniel was content to obey, before precisely what she had said registered in his sluggish brain. Gou’ald…harm?

His eyes widened and he struggled to a seating position.

" What…where?"

Realizing that his tongue was running away from him, he fell silent and looked around him in amazement.

" Wow."

The word opulent took on a new meaning in his new surroundings. He was in a small room, or maybe cave, it was really hard to see. The reason for this were the luxurious drapes in what looked like burgundy that covered every wall, hiding the rock, giving the place a warm cozy look. The floor was covered in a deep pile carpet the color of rust, on which two large brown couches were sat, him being in one, and from the tousled blonde hair that he could see, Sam in the other.

Standing between the two couches was the loveliest woman he had seen for quite some time. 

She looked about nineteen, with a figure that wouldn’t look out of place in Penthouse, not that he read such trash of course. She was covered in some sort of white gauzy material that left absolutely nothing to the imagination that fell to mid thigh.

Feeling stunned, Daniel raised his eyes to her face, only to see two clearly amused gray eyes watching him from a face framed by straight ebony hair.

" Wow," he said again, all thoughts of his luxurious surroundings vanishing.

She moved towards him, holding out her hand.

" Welcome to Nit, stranger." Her smile was dazzling, her voice like the tinkling of distant bells. "My name is Nadia."

" Daniel," he said, taking her proffered hand, and praying like hell that she wasn’t a Gou’ald.

" Dan-yel," she said slowly, sounding so like Sha’ri that he almost flinched. " Welcome. You and your fellow human can live without fear now. The Gou’ald has been vanquished."

That was he thought she had said, which was not good.

" Nadia?" He allowed her to pull him from the couch with surprising strength, covertly checking the other couch as she did so. To his relief, Sam was beginning to stir.

" This is my name, yes," the vision said with a smile at Sam as she sat up. " How do you feel?" she asked softly.

" Where are the Colonel and Teal’c?" Sam asked before Daniel could stop her.

She frowned. " The Gou’ald and the Jaffa? They have joined the others. You have no fear of them forcing their will on you ever again."

" The Colonel would never do that," Daniel said cautiously. " He is a Tok’ra, as are the other three people who preceded us. Two men and a woman?"

Small lines of puzzlement appeared on her brow, and she began to back away from them. " You would work with these Gou’ald? Of your own free will?"

" They are good Gou’ald," Sam said, taking a step towards her. " Surely you must have heard of them?"

" Especially seeing as you have the Tok’ra Wadjet hidden here," Daniel said, crossing his fingers behind his back.

Nadia froze, as if struck, then whirled towards the door.

" Shaheen."

A tall man immediately stepped inside, carrying a Zat.

" I heard, my sister," he said in a deep voice, his eyes dark.

Shaheen was the male version of Nadia. If he had been born on earth, he would have been a male model, what with his skin like ivory and his straight ebony hair. Unfortunately, this wasn’t earth, and Shaheen had a face like stone.

" What do you know of Wadjet?" he asked, pointing the Zat at Daniel.

" Uh." For the first time in his life, Daniel was at a loss for words. This Shaheen looked like he was going to enjoy killing him no matter what he said.

" The good Gou’ald, that’s almost everyone here besides us, have a legend that states that the book of light, that’s a book that tells of their, and the Gou’ald histories, was hidden on the planet Nit, along with a fugitive from Ra. This fugitive," he continued when they failed to react, " was called Wadjet."

He straightened. " I…we believe that they are hidden on this planet."

Shaheen shared a meaningful look with his sister, sending shivers of apprehension down Daniel’s spine.

" We do indeed have the book," he said calmly. " But of this…Tok’ra we know nothing."

Sam had been standing quietly whilst Daniel had done all the talking, but now she broke in, felling worried.

" You have heard of the Tok’ra before, right?" she asked the brother and sister.

The answer was flat, emphatic. " No."

Shaheen transferred the snout of the Zat to her, making he stiffen. " Nor do I believe that such a Gou’ald exists," he hissed. " My father’s father warned us that they would use force, then trickery to get the book." His eyes glittered in cold fury as he regarded them. "But to use unblended humans to do their bidding? Who would have thought?"

Daniel felt a sinking sensation in his gut.

" What have you done with Colonel O’Neill and the others?" he asked apprehensively.

" The Gou’ald and their servant have been staked out in the sand," Nadia said slowly, clearly relishing the idea. " It is only fair after…"

Her brother cut her off with an angry copping motion of his hand. "Our history is of no concern to them," he said roughly.

" But there you are wrong," Daniel said desperately. " Surely, if you have the book, you have read about the fundamental differences between a Tok’ra and a Gou’ald?"

" The book is sacred." Shaheen thundered. " No member of light may touch it."

" But I’m not a member of this…light," Daniel said desperately. " Please, let me show you what I’m talking about. Let me touch the book. Let me show you, once and for all, that there are really two different types of Gou’ald."

Sam added her plea to his. " Please. Just let us show you the facts. The Colonel and the others don’t deserve to die due to ignorance."

For a moment, the man was silent, his sister looking at him for guidance, and then he smiled.

" If you insist," he said lightly. " The book is kept in the catacombs." He lowered his Zat. " Come."

" Don’t you think that was just a bit too easy?" Daniel remarked to Sam ten minutes later as their hosts led them down a long corridor, past innocuous doors that glowed with the same phosphorescence as the large cave somewhere above their heads.

" Way too easy," she muttered. " What I wouldn’t do to have my P90 right about now," she said, referring to their missing equipment.

" I agree," Daniel said, startling her. " I don’t trust them farther than I can throw them, and I am feeling especially weak today."

Sam gave him a small smile, appreciating his futile attempt at humor. Not that it helped any. She was very worried about the Colonel, and Tofu. And her Dad, and Selmac. In fact she was worried about all of them, and if she really thought hard about their situation, she was liable to just freeze, so she consciously tried not to.

Shaheen interrupted her thoughts." The book is in here," he said with a thin smile, opening yet another pink door and ushering them into a small room. " Feel free to browse as long as you wish."

For a brief moment, Sam stared at the tall man and his silent sister suspiciously, then she was distracted by a gasp from Daniel.

" Sam, he whispered. " you aren’t going to believe this."

The room was like the cave. The walls were gold, the ceiling crystal and the floor had more exquisite pink Gou’ald carved into it. The rosy glow clearly showed up the fact that every space on the walls was covered in the same writing as the rear wall of the cave. The combined effect of beauty mixed with knowledge made them gasp in awe.

" The book of light is over there," Shaheen said, pointing stiffly to a dais carved out of brilliant white crystal.

" So I see," Daniel gulped, feeling the hairs at the back of his neck rise.

He stumbled towards it, aware of Sam right on his elbow.

Nevertheless. It was history, and most probably the most important book in the entire galaxy.

" Read." Shaheen said with a thin smile, backing out of the room. " I will return in a while." With that, he backed out completely, the door shutting with a thud, leaving them alone in the pink glow.

It was the thud that made her suspicious.

" Daniel," she said quietly, grabbing his arm. "That door…" She pulled him back towards their only means of escape.

" What about it?" he asked irritably, staring longingly at the book.

" It shut with a thud."

" Is this going somewhere?" he asked.

She shook her head with a rueful smile. " I may just be paranoid, but that thud sounded suspiciously like the sound we get when the blast doors are shut at the SGC, and they are airtight."

Daniel stared at her, all thoughts of the book forgotten.

" You have got to be kidding," he breathed, but his quick eyes had already confirmed her hypothesis. There was no indication that there had ever been a door where he knew one was. The writing continued, seamless, flawless.

" Uh-uh," he muttered, feeling the walls close in on him. "This reminds me of a meat fridge, without the cold."

Sam gave him an assessing look. " It sounds that you are speaking from experience," she said.

He nodded, his expression rueful. "I am. He shrugged. "I was a precocious kid. Luckily my parents found me before I either froze or ran out of…air." His voice trailed off as the full seriousness of their situation finally sunk in.

" I estimate we have a least a couple of hours," she said calmly. "Hours we can put to good use." She pushed Daniel towards the book. "Go and see if there is any mention in there of a way out of here, whilst I try the walls, okay?"

Daniel nodded and headed for the book. "Okay, although I doubt that there will be any mention in here," he said doubtfully.

" That dais had to have been bought in somehow," she said gently, indicating the crystal stand the book was resting on. "It is too big to have been bought through that door, right?"

Daniel brightened. " Oh, right." He carefully opened the book. " It all depends when the last entry in this book was made," he said slowly, lost to academia as Sam began the slow task of prodding the walls.

…

" We are not going to do this."

Four hours and ten minutes later found both him and Sam leaning tiredly against the dais, both of them sweating profusely in the heat, and gasping vainly for oxygen that was no longer to be had. Daniel watched vaguely as a drop of sweat hit one of the thick vellum pages with a splat, and carefully blotted it off before any damage was done.

Yes, the book was amazing, with quite earth shattering revelations on where the Gou’ald originated, and the reasons behind the Gou’ald/Tok’ra split, reasons he was pretty sure neither side even knew about. The problem was, unless they could somehow survive, no one would ever know, and he was pretty confidant the mysterious Shaheen would move the book to another location where its knowledge would be lost to all for ever.

" Damn, we need to get out," Sam croaked, her lips blue. "The Colonel and the others are depending on us."

Daniel shook his head helplessly; using what little strength he had left to close the book, staring at the crescent on the front blankly.

" Ain’t gonna happen Sam," he sighed. "We have gone over every inch of the walls, the ceiling, the floor…the book…the dais…under the dais…" he thumped the book despondently, no longer caring as to what damage he may cause. " The book will remain a mystery, and Wadjet will remain what she already is, an enigma."

Sam lightly traced the stylized crescent with a trembling finger. " I wonder what this means," she said reflectively. "Whomever touches me shall die?"

Daniel shook his head slowly. " I have no idea," he whispered. "It isn’t part of any language I recognize."

Sam raised her head, staring at the linguist.

" None?" she asked. "None at all?"

He shook his head, swaying slightly.

" None. I believe it is a nonsense symbol, like early day graffiti."

She was staring at him strangely.

" Sam?"

She didn’t answer, merely staggered to a section of wall, and pointed at something, waiting impatiently until he joined her.

" If so," she rasped, "then your graffiti artist had a field day way back when."

" Oh God Sam," Daniel said wonderingly, falling to his knees. There, written on the wall, was the exact same symbol.

" Hit it, twist it…do something," he breathed, but she was way ahead of him.

He watched, hardly daring to hope as she first pushed, then tried to slide the symbol. To no avail.

" Sam," he said desperately. "I can’t…"

"Dammit," she screamed. "Why don’t you the hell open?"

Suddenly she was sobbing, pounding at the symbol impotently.

The tiny click was lost to her, but not to Daniel.

" Sam," he breathed. "Do you feel it?"

She did, her tears drying. "Oxygen, she whispered, scrabbling to her feet. "Not much oxygen, but some."

"Enough," Daniel said, feeling a pounding headache come on with a vengeance. "Enough to survive, at least for a while."

She nodded, her eyes shining. "Care to come and help me push?" she asked.

Their combined weight slowly swung open a perfectly balanced door, made out of what Sam would later swear was solid Naquadah, opening up a dark room, one lit up eerily by the pink glow.

Sam was the first one in, breathing heavily, Daniel right behind her.

When their eyes finally adjusted to the gloom, they both gasped in surprise.

"Holy crap," Daniel muttered, staring around the room in awe. "Ter’l was right."

" So it would seem," Sam said dryly, looking equally as stunned. They both had good reason to.

The room was small, almost a storage locker, with floor to ceiling shelves. It was what was on those shelves that stunned the two members of SG1.

"Are they…what?" Daniel stuttered, staring around him numbly. Finally, he settled on silence, content to just letting his eyes roam.

Each shelf supported an exquisitely carved crystal urn, in which a Gou’ald symbiont could be seen floating in a jelly like substance. He estimated that there was at least twenty small urns, and one big one.

" Oh Sam," he breathed walking towards the large urn with jerky steps. "This must be Wadjet." He gestured to the symbiont, his face tragic. "Why would they…?" His voice trailed off as he peered into the urn.

" She looks dead," he whispered sadly.

Sam joined him. "This is a product of ignorance," she said softly. "Remember Nadia and Shaheen? Remember they said there was no such thing as a good Gou’ald?" She gestured towards the urn. "I think that the Nit believed that Wadjet was evil, and buried her, and what is obviously her offspring, down here to die."

Daniel was shaking his head.

"Oh these poor Tok’ra, sentenced to centuries of loneliness all due to people’s stupid ignorance." He tapped the glass of the nearest urn. "These people could have become hosts, instead of dying."

Sam looked at him sharply, almost overbalancing in the thin air.

"You think something happened to them?" she asked.

He shrugged closely scrutinizing urn after urn. "It’s just a feeling," he said, "coupled with something Nadia let slip. She said that they had staked Jack and the others out in the sand as retribution for something or the other." He shrugged. "Her brother cut her off before she could continue."

He turned from an obviously dead baby Gou’ald to see her slumped on the sandy floor. "Sam," he admonished. "Come on, there must be a way out of here."

She shook her head, her eyes hopeless. "We haven’t the time," she said. "What little oxygen we found in here has almost gone…"

A tear rolled down her face as she stared up at the Gou’ald symbionts. "So near, yet so far," she whispered.

" Maybe not," Daniel said. "Remember Set? The Gou’ald found on earth by…"

"What about it?" Sam asked, cutting him off as an incredulous idea began to form. Surely not, after what had to be eons?

" Help me look," he said urgently. "Maybe one has…"

"One has," she said eerily. "Look."

The dead-looking Gou’ald in the urn that Daniel had tapped his fingers against now had his eyes open, and was regarding them quietly. Slowly, almost involuntary, Sam reached forwards and removed the lid.

" Sam," Daniel said softly, aware of what she intended to do. "What happens if he…"

She gave him a quick smile, her eyes like dark pools. "We have to. There is no choice."

He still wasn’t convinced, staring with something akin to horror at the tiny Gou’ald. It was a dark copper color and was floating upright, using an occasional fin to keep it that way. As he watched, it slowly turned to look at him, intelligence blazing from the black eyes and sending shivers down his spine.

"If he is Gou’ald," Daniel said softly, "I’ll be in no condition to stop him."

"He is a Tok’ra," she said quietly. "Can’t you tell?"

"No," he said jerkily. "And neither can you."

" He is," she said, swaying slightly. "He has to be."

Daniel pressed himself against the farthest shelf as Sam reached in to the jelly-like substance and removed the Gou’ald, watching in wonder as they stared at each other for a moment. Then with a smile in his direction, she knelt, and then lay down on the ground, allowing the Gou’ald to slowly slither up her body.

" Sam…"Daniel moaned, horrified.

Her eyes met his.

"We…I have to do this," she said. "It is either this, or die."

When he nodded, she shut her eyes, feeling the first tentative probing of the Tok’ra.

Dear God, she hoped it was a Tok’ra. It was way too late to back out now.

" He’s going for the back of your neck," Daniel hissed urgently, making her heart lurch. Didn’t the Tok’ra usually blend through the mouth? But then again, this was a new symbiont, and he most probably didn’t know. She prayed he didn’t know.

Suddenly she felt pain, right at the base of the skull, in the soft tissue found there. It wasn’t so bad at first, and then all of a sudden it was, making her cry out.

It was terrible. A tearing slashing pain that made her writhe on the ground, aware that Daniel was kneeling on her chest, talking to her soothingly. Then it was over, the pain slowly diminishing until it was as if it had never been.

She became aware of Daniel talking to her, his voice frantic. Then, in mid sentence, he keeled over, the remaining oxygen now too bad to breathe.

"Rest now," a soft voice said. "I will take over, if you would like me to?"

Sam nodded, feeling the tears on her face. The voice was so kind, so sweet. She was aware of getting to her feet and running her hands down the back of one shelf, as if searching for something.

"Who are you?" she asked.

The voice chuckled, somehow reminding her of baked bread and fresh cinnamon rolls.

Suddenly there was a muted clock, and one entire wall swung open, leading into a heavily cobwebbed tunnel.

"Oh yuck," Diyonne said, showing apprehension for the first time. "White stuff."

"Cobwebs," Sam half muttered, reveling in the fresh oxygen that was coming in from somewhere. She felt Diyonne try to reach into her mind, searching for the meaning, and mentally slapped her hand.

" Ask first," she muttered, remembering what the Colonel had told her about Tofu. "You must learn to share," she muttered.

"But I have nothing to share," Diyonne said sadly. "I have had no hosts apart from you."

That sent chills down Sam’s back as she knelt next to a slowly reviving Daniel.

"How did you stay sane?" she asked. "We believe that Wadjet was moved here millennia ago."

She felt Diyonne shrug, and almost laughed at the weird sensation.

"I think there is a …narcotic in the liquid you found me in," she said. "Indeed, I had no awareness until…Daniel tapped the urn. The vibrations woke me up."

"Sam?"

Daniel’s weak question made her concentrate on the task at hand.

"I’m okay," she told him, noticing with concern that his color was still bad.

"Can you walk?" she asked gently.

"Think so," he said shakily, leaning on her.

"That was close," he muttered once he had regained his feet. "I saw my life flash before my eyes, and it was all in hieroglyphics."

His weak attempt at humor had the desired effect, and Sam chuckled.

"You’ll be okay," she said, helping him into the tunnel, only to have him stop dead.

"Blame the anoxia, but I’m pretty stupid," he said, searching her eyes. "The last I saw of you, you were just about to become a…host. What happened?"

Sam gave him small smile. "Her name is Diyonne, and she is pleased to meet you."

'Tok’ra', he breathed, then frowned.

"Her?"

She shrugged. "I guess. Diyonne thinks they take on the sex of the host, to avoid confusion, but she isn’t too sure."

Daniel laughed, a harsh bark of laughter, not like him at all. He was also leaning against her heavily as they navigated the dark tunnel, and she realized in shock that her friend wasn’t well.

"Daniel, are you okay?" she said at last, pulling him to a stop.

His smile was rueful. "No. I’m sick and dizzy, and I think I want to throw up. If it wasn’t for the fact that Jack and the others are probably dying an agonizing death in the sunshine, I would just expire here."

Diyonne’s soft voice spoke to her, making her hesitate.

"Diyonne says that there is a room at the end of the corridor. She can’t recall much, but knows that it is there."

" So let’s go then," Daniel said, looking determined.

Five minutes later found them at what looked suspiciously like a blank wall.

"Racial memory can sometimes be a good thing," Diyonne murmured, reaching up and finding a recessed switch.

The door opened with a loud clack, and they stumbled into brilliant whiteness.

Daniel took two steps and hit the floor with a thud, where he lay and stared up at the person called Samantha Carter. Only it wasn’t. Like Tofu, when he took over Jack’s body, she was…different.

" Diyonne, I presume?" he said dryly, struggling to sit upright.

"In …the flesh," Diyonne said, smiling as she helped him do so. "I am pleased to meet you."

"And I you," he said, shivering slightly. It suddenly came to his attention that their new accommodation was cold. Very cold.

" What?" Using Diyonne as a crutch, he shakily got to his feet, only to stop dead in stunned horror.

"Oh good grief," he muttered, aware that Diyonne was hugging him tightly. "This place is a crypt."

Diyonne nodded sadly. "I remembered as I opened the door, and Sam immediately allowed me to take over." She looked at the swaddled corpses sadly. "The Nit were bought here after they died, way back when, before everything changed and we were incarcerated. Obviously they continued the tradition."

Daniel blinked at her, dying to ask what happened, before dragging his mind back to the task at hand.

"A lot of these bodies seem new," he muttered, walking towards a ledge where at least twelve muslin wrapped bodies were stacked, almost like cordwood. "This proves my theory that something cataclysmic happened to these people sometime recently."

" Good for you," Diyonne said, sounding so much like Sam that he jumped. Sam speaking in a two toned voice was still something he had still to get used to. Hell, he was still getting used to Tofu.

And talking Tofu…"Can you get us out of here?" he asked, trying vainly to ignore his chattering teeth.

"I’m working on it," Diyonne muttered, feeling around the edges of what looked like a plain wooden door, sans handle. "Hold your…horses." Her voice was amused. "Hey, I never realized how much fun having a host was before."

"Wait until you meet your evil cousins, and then say that," Daniel muttered quietly, watching Diyonne work.

He wondered how Sam felt, seeing her fingers search yet not be in control. He wondered how he would feel in a similar situation. Freaked out probably, although Jack seemed to take things in stride.

"Ahah," Diyonne muttered as a muffled click was heard, and then straightened, and a wary Sam faced him.

" Daniel, stay where you are, you are in no condition to walk, stay here whilst I go and get the others."

"On your own?" Daniel asked, staggering to his feet. "Like hell."

Her face became hard, pure military.

"You would be more of a liability than an asset Daniel," she said, "and I can’t spend half my time looking after you." Her face softened. "Stay here. I won’t be long."

"You hope," he muttered, admitting defeat. "Okay, but not here. I’ll be back in the gold room studying."

"Okay," Sam whispered, opening the door a crack. When she didn’t see anyone, she slipped out, as quiet as a ghost.

…

She found herself in a neat tunnel lit by more of that pink phosphorescence. The color was beginning to get to her, and she made a mental note to make sure that everyone knew that. If she came to work one day, and found out that the guys had painted her office in this color, she would scream.

At least she could see where she was going, she thought, and the fact that there was no one in her way.

That in itself was eerie. Surely there should be some sound? Voices perhaps. There was nothing at all, and she had a sense of a vast emptiness.

"This way," Diyonne said, leading her through into another tunnel. "This one will lead you back up into the cave,"

Sam stared around her, following Diyonne’s directions carefully, feeling very glad to have her on board. If she hadn’t been, Sam would have been hopelessly lost by now.

" Many a soldier tried to map the catacombs during my mother’s day, Diyonne said. "Most failed. My father however, did not."

Sam nodded. She had wondered as to how Wadjet had come to have offspring.

"How terrible," Sam murmured, still vividly remembering how close she and Daniel had come to the same fate.

"Oh thanks," Sam muttered, coming to what looked like another door. "Is the cave behind this door?" she asked quietly.

"Yes," Diyonne answered. "If you like, I can take over," she offered, feeling Sam’s hesitation.

" That isn’t the problem," Sam said. "The beam that knocked us out is. I recall that Tofu found it agonizing. And if he found it painful…"

"Then I am likely to find it painful as well," Diyonne said thoughtfully. "Can you not open it and dive through?"

"And catch a bullet from whomever is guarding the other side?" Sam asked dryly.

"I don’t believe there will be any guards," Diyonne said thoughtfully. "In mother’s time this place was teeming with people. Now there are none."

"You believe there is no one left?" Sam asked, shocked.

"I do not know what to believe," Diyonne said patiently. "All I have to go on is a racial memory, the knowledge of my mother, passed on to her children."

"Ter’l is gonna love you," Sam muttered. "He has been after your mother’s ring technology for years."

"But they use it," Diyonne said puzzledly. "I distinctly recall them fitting it into Lord Ra’s ship. Rings that materialize around you, deconstructing your atoms at the sub molecular level and transferring you to another ring array set up somewhere else?"

" Oh God," Sam said weakly. "That idea was mom’s?" She began to laugh, puzzling her passenger. "Oh God, Ter’l is gonna be sooo pissed off."

Diyonne made a quick grab for the reason for Sam’s laughter, chuckling when she found it.

Sam slowly straightened, wiping the tears from her eyes. Ter’l would only be pissed off if he was still alive, and the longer she stood behind this door, the less likely that would be.

Decision made, she tensed.

Here goes...., she muttered opening the door with a click.

She had a brief view of gold and pink snakes, and then she was hard up against a stalagmite, breathing hard.

"No stun blasts?" Diyonne asked.

"And no people," Sam muttered. "Wonderful."

She slowly got to her feet, wishing desperately that she had her trusty P90. She had forgotten how much the carvings muffled sound. If she wasn’t careful, a whole regiment could sneak up on her unawares.

"I doubt that," Diyonne said. "I have increased your hearing by at least 70%. I believe that you could now hear a rat fart on the other side of the planet if you put your mind to it."

"Diyonne," Sam said, contriving to sound shocked. "Get out of the trashy side of my brain."

" Did they really use that sort of language in basic training?" Diyonne asked, amused.

"All that, and then some," Sam muttered, crouching as she came to the caves entrance. She was instantly hit by a wave of heat and light, making her gasp.

" How could they ever have survived this?" she asked miserably, straining to see across the shimmering sand.

"By asking their guests to do this," Diyonne replied. All of a sudden, Sam could see perfectly, and the heat didn’t seem so bad at all.

"Thanks Diyonne," she said gratefully, and then stiffened. "Over there, at the base of that hill," she said in a tight voice.

The sight that greeted her was not an encouraging one. Five people were spread-eagled face up in a long row, shackled to bare rock that shimmered in the heat. From her vantage point at the cave’s entrance, they all looked unconscious, or dead, making her fear the worst.

"I see them," Diyonne said slowly. "They are all Tok’ra, like me?"

"Apart from the Jaffa at the end," Sam said, crawling out of the cave carefully. "But he’s a good Jaffa."

"A what?" Diyonne asked blankly.

"Oh sister," Sam muttered. "Boy, are you in for one hell of an education when we get back to the SGC."

By squinting she could see that Selmac, Ter’l, Anise, and the Colonel were shackled tightly to the rock in obviously specially made restraints that encircled not only their arms and legs, but across their necks as well, making it impossible to move. The metal also looked old, making Sam suspect that they weren’t the first people the Nit had used it on.

Teal’c had faired slightly better. He did not sport the shackle around the neck that the others had, and was laying in partial shade, almost as if the Nit had no idea what he was. Sam was pleased to see that his clothes looked undisturbed, which meant that Junior was more than likely okay.

"There are two guards," Diyonne muttered. "Hopefully with keys."

"Tell me about it," Sam agreed. "The problem I see is this. How in the hell do I get close to them?"

That was indeed, a problem. The two guards were sitting in the shade of a lush looking tree on a small hill overlooking their captives. If she strained her ears, she could hear the sound of running water as a natural spring gurgled out water that ran down the hillside only to evaporate just before reaching their charges.

"Oh shit," she whispered, the full import of the cruelty of the Nit sinking in. How terrible to be dying of thirst knowing that there is a spring full of water just out of their reach.

"The Nit weren’t always this sadistic," Diyonne said, trying to defend the indefensible. 

"Something must have happened to turn them this way."

"Daniel believes that as well," Sam muttered, assessing her options. What they needed was a distraction. Not a big one, merely enough to catch the attention of the guards without causing too much of a commotion.

Suddenly she hit on an idea. It was dangerous, but it just might work. It all depended on how close the guards she could get. They were sitting together, chatting idly. If she was careful, she could take them out.

"Can you handle two men at once?" Diyonne asked, then stopped shocked as Sam laughed aloud.

"What did I say?" she asked, only to find out that that was one answer Sam was determined not to give her.

"What do you intend on doing?" Diyonne asked at last.

"We are gonna circle round them, until we have nothing but the desert behind us, and then…

"You are going to use flesh?" Diyonne sounded confused. "In what way?"

"Wait and see," Sam muttered, leopard crawling out of the cave.

It was tough going, and took a bit of time, but eventually she was out of the guards sight. 

Once she was certain that they weren’t going to see her, she ran out towards the desert, removing her shirt as she did so.

Now all she had on was a skimpy brown military issue vest, and under that, a tough air force sports bra.

"This is what I mean, Diyonne," she said, deftly removing the vest and bra as well, and dropping them on top of her shirt.

"What are you doing?" Diyonne asked as Sam started to take off her pants.

" Gathering the element of surprise," Sam said slowly.

She was now dressed in nothing more than a brief pair of khaki panties, and boots.

" You see, Diyonne," she said patiently, making a prominent pile of her clothes.

"A successful attack is one that has the element of surprise behind it. What I propose to do is walk up behind the guards, making a lot of noise as I do so. What do you think will happen when they turn around and see a semi naked woman walking towards them?"

"Hubba-hubba?" Diyonne asked, unashamedly riffling through Sam’s mental dictionary.

"Precisely," Sam said dryly. "Then comes the fun part. I have to somehow…neutralize them before they get me."

"Oh," Diyonne said.

…

Commander of the Light Enjay Saladin was laughing at something his second was telling him, his small eyes tight with mirth, when he heard a most unusual sound. It sounded like moaning, and was coming from behind him. At first, he thought one of the prisoners had escaped, but they were all where they should be. Even the gray haired one had stopped struggling to free himself and appeared unconscious, so it wasn’t them.

The moaning was getting closer, making him withdraw his knife, his palms sweaty.

"Commander?" his second asked, his face pale.

"There are no such things as Djinns," Saladin snapped. "You should be ashamed to still be afraid of ghosts. Concentrate on the prisoners whilst I go and…" His voice trailed off in astonishment as the most beautiful vision fell at his feet. She had short blonde hair, and a figure to die for, and seemed to be…naked.

"Hello, and where did you come from?" he asked, feeling his loins stir.

She slowly rose to her feet, giving him a close up of a magnificent pair of breasts.

"The Underworld," she whispered, her eyes dead, freezing him in his tracks.

Suddenly she was moving, and he felt his knife snatched from his hand. Two seconds later, he knew no more.

…

"Colonel O’Neill would be proud of me," Sam muttered. "Two baddies in five seconds."

She then dropped as if pole axed, retching dryly.

"Sam, you okay?" Diyonne asked. When she didn’t answer, Diyonne took that as a no, and took over with muttered apologies. She could see that time was of the essence when it came to her fellow Tok’ra.

The brute of a guard they had first encountered had a set of keys prominently displayed on his hip, and it was these she took, scrambling down the hill almost on all fours.

…

So far Tofu was having a really crap day.

The last thing he remembered doing was standing next to that gold wall. Jack had been asking about…entrances, and Daniel had replied.

Then that was it, until he found himself shackled hand and foot, staring up at the sunshine, and trying very hard not to cook.

So much for the rescue attempt. 

Selmac must be dying to rub it in.

He could feel the presence of Selmac, Anise, and Ter’l, and thankfully Teal’c had answered his hails, but not Daniel and Carter.

Oh God, when they hadn’t answered, Jack had been driven into a frenzy. 

The thought of what might have been happening to them had driven him to hurl himself at his restraints again and again, until Tofu had taken over, insisting that a cool head was needed.

Damn, they had tried to escape. They had tried so hard to escape. Everyone had, to no avail. 

Whoever had come up with their terrible punishment had meant for it to be the most sadistic, most downright inescapable way of dying they could think of, complete to the sounds of a burbling stream in the distance.

He licked his lips again, thankful that Jack was no longer suffering. The man had reached unconsciousness just less than an hour ago, the ravages on his body finally proving too much for him to bear.

Tofu sighed, a soulful bone weary sigh. He and Jack had tried everything to escape, including breaking his wrist and trying to slip his hand through his arm shackle.

Nothing had worked. Now he knew that he had no other option left but for him but to die, and it galled him.

Suddenly he felt the presence of another being, hovering over him.

"Hold on," a strange voice said. "For just a little while longer." Then his bindings were free and he was unceremoniously dragged until he was face first in a small stream.

Tofu drank. He drank and drank until he could drink no more, aware of other bodies landing with thuds to each side of him. Then, when he had drunk his fill, he rolled over and stared up at his mysterious rescuer.

"Sam?" No, it wasn’t Sam. She looked like Sam, but wasn’t.

" Who are you?" he said huskily.

" I am Diyonne, daughter of Wadjet," she said with a smile. "And I shall return shortly. Sam wants her clothes on."

With that, she disappeared, leaving him blinking in confusion. Had she been naked? Sam?

She was back moments later, fully dressed.

" Come," she said, aware that she had everyone’s rapt attention.

" The cave is cooler, and there is no one there."

" What happened to the guards?" Tofu asked.

"I believe Sam would use the word…neutralized," Diyonne said, giving him a bright-eyed stare and leading them back to the cave entrance. As expected, there was no one there to greet them.

" And what happened to Sam?" Selmac asked, slumping against the wall just inside the entrance with a groan. "My host is getting too old for this shit," he muttered.

"Sam was dying," Diyonne said. "She and Daniel were locked in an airtight room and left to die. I became her host in order to save her life, and find a way out of there."

" And Daniel?" Selmac asked.

"He is still unblended, but is not well. He is studying the book of light as we speak."

Ter’l stiffened. "So it is true? The book is here?"

She smiled. "The book is indeed here."

"Wadjet? She is here as well?"

Diyonne’s smile faded. "My mother is dead." She sank down with her back to the wall and shut her eyes, hoping that Ter’l would know when to shut up.

He did.

Half an hour later, she was disturbed by a familiar deep voice.

"Major Carter?"

Sam opened her eyes and smiled at Teal’c, wincing at the angry sunburn she could see on his face and arms.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He nodded seriously. "I am. Once I realized we could not escape, I put myself into a deep state of Kel’nor’eem. My burns have already begun to heal."

"Clever person," she murmured.

He didn’t answer, prompting her to look up at him.

"What is it, Teal’c?"

"You have a Gou’ald inside of you. I wish her to know that I serve her gladly, as I do her host." He leaned forwards and gave her a deep bow.

"Teal’c," Sam said, amused. "You may not believe this, but she is terrified of you." She held up a hand as he made to speak. "Not for the reasons you think," she said.

"Then why?" Teal’c asked, aware that the others were listening intently.

"She was conceived here, and has never seen a Jaffa before."

"But surely racial memory…?" Anise asked, looking intrigued.

"Of her mother?" Sam asked. "She was born on earth, in the time of Ra. If there were Jaffa on earth, Ra sure didn’t advertise them."

"So she knows nothing of the Jaffa?" Teal’c said, looking incredulous.

"Only what you care to teach her," Sam said, aware that this was the answer he sought.

"It will be my honor," he said.

…

"That said, can we go fetch Daniel, fetch this blasted book and split?" a faint voice asked, making her smile widely.

"Colonel?" she breathed. "That you?"

He nodded. "Yep. Slightly toasted around the edges, but it’s me alright."

He gave her a long searching look.

"What happened Major?" His tone booked no arguments.

"We were dying," she whispered, settling down next to him, all the while scanning the cave, just in case. If there were Nit about, she was still the only able bodied person there.

"From the beginning, Major," he said evenly, his eyes like pieces of obsidian. "Leave nothing out."

Sam nodded, suddenly aware that he was furious with her.

"I really had no choice," she reiterated, willing him to believe her.

"Go on," he growled.

" Daniel and I awoke from that zat effect to be welcomed by a brother and sister duo called Shaheen and Nadia. They were adamant that you were Gou’ald, and they had rescued us. Needless to say, this didn’t go down too well, especially when they told us that you and the other Tok’ra had been staked out in the sun to bake to death."

"Daniel and I spent a useless half hour trying to convince them that you were the good guys, but nothing worked. Eventually, one of them let slip that they had the book of light, and Daniel asked if we could go to it and show him that we were telling the truth."

"Shaheen wasn’t too enthusiastic about the idea, but quickly capitulated after a discussion with his sister. Now I know why," she muttered.

"Well I don’t," O’Neill snapped, "so give."

She shuddered, remembering, an action not lost on the others.

" The book was kept in an airtight room, something we weren’t aware of until Shaheen locked us in. The door shut with a thunk, and it was so seamless that I couldn’t find out where it had ben, no matter how hard I searched."

"At first, we weren’t too worried. Daniel checked out the book, whilst I checked out the walls of our new home, which were made of the same type of writings as we saw on the cave wall. We knew the dais the book was resting on was way too large to have been bought through the door we entered from, so there had to be another door, somewhere."

"The problem was finding it."

"We were half dead from lack of breathable oxygen when we finally figured out that the symbol on the front of the book of light was only repeated once on the wall."

"It was a way out," Anise breathed, totally caught up in the story.

Sam shook her head.

"No, it was a way into a small alcove. It did, however, give us more oxygen to add to our meager supply, but, unfortunately for us, wasn’t another way out."

"At first we were crushed, figuring we were finished, until we realized what the room contained. It was a storehouse for Wadjet and her offspring."

"Tok’ra," Ter’l breathed.

Sam nodded. "Yes, but we weren’t sure, not 100%. We searched frantically, realizing that time, and oxygen, was running out. When we finally came up empty, I knew what I had to do, in the hopes that whomever I chose would be Tok’ra and not Gou’ald."

"That was an incredible risk, Sammie," Jacob said huskily, leaning into her. "If you had been wrong…"

She nodded, her eyes clear. "Daniel would still have been alive, regardless. If the symbiont had been Gou’ald, she still would have wanted out of there."

"Still," Jack said huskily, "It was one hell of a risk you took."

"You were dying," she whispered, holding his gaze. "We were dying, you were dying, and I had salvation a hands width away. I chose the only option there was."

For a moment he was still, shutting his eyes, almost in prayer, then rose to his feet, his expression rueful.

"What is done is done," he said philosophically. "Now we have a more pressing item on the agenda."

"The book," Ter’l said.

"Daniel," Jack said, giving the Tok’ra archaeologist a hard look. "The book is secondary."

"But…" Ter’l spluttered, only to have Jack ignore him.

"You say Daniel’s hurt?" he asked Carter.

She nodded. "The lack of oxygen was pretty horrific. He was pretty much dead when Diyonne finally managed to open a tunnel between the room and a crypt."

"A crypt, you say?" Jack asked, beginning to take cautious steps towards the rear wall.

"Yes sir," Sam said. "Something pretty terrible happened to the Nit, and recently at that. Daniel is pretty confident that most of the corpses are new."

"No wonder the Nit are so paranoid," Jacob muttered from behind her.

"That still doesn’t excuse their nasty manners as to where the Tok’ra are concerned," Jack said, crouching down behind a thick lime column and staring at the golden rear wall thoughtfully.

"Any ideas Carter?" he asked, nodding at the wall.

"C4?" she said hopefully.

"Not unless you can magically rematerialize my back pack," he grunted.

"Maybe not all the doors have that zat effect coupled to them," Sam said slowly. "Remember, Daniel said there were four of them."

"Are you willing to risk Diyonne’s life on that assumption?" Jack asked.

That she wasn’t willing to do, ever.

"Thought so," Jack said, reading her expression. "I hope she’s sexy," he muttered. "Tofu only works with sexy Tok’ra."

"Tell Tofu she’s a burnished copper color with light pink fins," she murmured half under her breath, lest her father hear.

"Children," Jacob admonished, having heard anyway. "Stick to the job at hand."

"Yes Dad," Jack said, ignoring the scowl he got. "Any ideas, dad?" he continued, obviously fireproof.

"Nary a one," Jacob growled.

"Why don’t we throw shards of limestone at the doors?" Anise asked.

"Whilst you figure out how to proceed, I will return to the hill and search the guards for any weapons they might have," Teal’c said.

"Good idea," Jack said approvingly. "By the way, what did you do with them?"

"They were dispatched to Kheb," Teal’c said when she didn’t answer.

"Dispatched?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Dispatched," Teal’c said firmly. "I saw her clearly."

"You go girl," he said admiringly.

"Throwing limestone towards the door may be a good idea," Sam said, trying desperately to brush away the thought about precisely how much Teal’c might have seen. "It will tell us if the beams work on infra-red or motion."

" Well then," Ter’l said brightly. "Let’s not delay." He picked up a shard of stone and sent it whizzing towards the wall.

Nothing happened.

"Maybe you have the wrong section of wall," Anise said. "It is, after all, a long wall."

"I have the right section," he said stiffly. This is the door we used to enter." 

He pointed imperiously, sounding a lot like Daniel.

"See, the door is between the symbol for Seth and Osiris."

He sent another chip flying, to land with an ineffectual clatter. "This isn’t working," he said somewhat unnecessarily.

"Major Carter, allow me," Teal’c said. 

She crouched down instinctively as something came whizzing by her to land with a thud against the wall. The place where it landed was immediately lit with a dazzling display of blue/white pyrotechnics, sending them diving for cover.

"It is a stone warmed by the sun," Teal’c explained when they all glared at him.

"Impressive," Jack said, staring at the cooling stone with thoughtful eyes. "The thought now is this, will our mysterious hosts come out to find out what all the commotion was?"

"Let us hope so," Sam said. "Because they will have to switch the zat effect off in order to investigate, and if they do that…"

She fell silent when the door opened with a scraping sound.

"Et voila," Jack said, mangling two languages at once.

They watched silently as a lone guard cautiously stared around the cave, a staff weapon in his hand.

Suddenly there was a blur of motion as Teal’c threw one of the knives captured from the guards. His aim was perfect, and the guard crumpled without a sound.

No sooner had the guard hit the ground then Jack and Teal’c were dragging him behind the nearest limestone column.

"Teal’c?" Jack murmured quietly, removing the knife and cleaning it on the guard’s tunic. 

"This is a bit rude. He might have told us things."

"He had my staff weapon," Teal’c rumbled, as if this explained everything.

"Oh right," Jack murmured, shaking his head silently before scuttling back to where Sam was crouched.

"Never, never seperate a Jaffa and his staff weapon..."

"Can we go now?" he muttered to her. "I dunno about you, but I’m getting anxious about Daniel."

Her voice was equally as quiet. "Follow me."

…

Catacombs were catacombs, Jack thought disgustedly, no matter where in the universe you were. Having never been fond of enclosed spaces, a feeling reinforced by his incarceration in Iraq, he found the never ending tunnels disquieting. That, and the eerie feeling that he had seen this type of tunnel before.

"Jacob," he asked. "Could these tunnels be some sort of early Tok’ra construction?"

"Maybe," Ter’l answered before Jacob could open his mouth. He ran his hand lightly along the wall. "The texture feels the same as any modern day tunnel, the only difference being the width of the tunnel, this being a lot narrower, and the color."

"Maybe because the technology belonged to a woman," Jack asked, "hence the color being pink instead of the usual blue?"

"No?" he said when an answer wasn’t forthcoming.

" The third door on the right leads to the crypt," Sam said. "Diyonne tells me the accommodation areas can easily be reached from here as well, if you like."

For a moment, Jack was tempted before common sense kicked in.

" Nah, we’ll leave that until SG2 get here, which will be…" he looked at his watch. " In twenty minutes."

For a moment, Sam looked at him blankly, before jerking up her own arm. "Holy…" she muttered. " I had no idea of the time."

"It’s been an exciting day," Jack saidsoftly. "For you especially."

Their eyes met.

"Yes sir," she said simply, feeling the scar at the base of her skull before carefully making her way back into the crypt.

…

‘Oh this is…not nice," Anise said, stopping dead at the sight of the bodies arrayed around her. "I have not seen so many dead in one place since…" her voice trailed off at the confused look on the Tau’ri’s faces.

"What is wrong?" she asked, crouching instinctively.

"I’m not too sure," Carter said. "The place smells of…"

"Cordite," Jack finished for her, his face grim. "The place smells like the scene of a battle, full of cordite and blood."

"Oh God," Sam said, her eyes wide. "The smell isn’t coming from here." She indicated the still open door leading to the golden room. "It’s coming from there."

She watched as first Colonel O’Neill, then Teal’c, both armed with their knives, cautiously made their way into the corridor between the crypt and the golden room, and then followed, the others behind her.

The further she got into the corridor, the more distinct the smell became. That, and the smell of…

That is the smell of the liquid in the urns," Diyonne said sadly. "I fear the worst."

So did Sam, for Daniel.

She watched carefully as O’Neill used hand movements to tell them what to do. Teal’c was to go left, he was going right, and Sam, being disarmed, was to stay where she was.

When she nodded, he was gone, Teal’c right behind him like a ghost.

Ten minutes later he was back, his face drawn.

"Sam, Daniel needs you."

…

The storeroom was in ruins. Everywhere she looked there were shards of pottery and crystal that crunched underfoot. What made things worse, so terrible, were the still forms of the inhabitants of the urns that lay just as broken amongst the ruins. Even Wadjet hadn’t been spared, her long dead form now sporting a range of bullet holes that could only have come from an earth based weapon.

"They’re fast learners, these Nit, aren’t they?" Jack grated, before leading her into the main room.

"Oh Daniel."

He was lying face up, looking serene amongst the tiny pieces of parchment and vellum that had been the book of Nit.

From the look of it, from the destruction all around him, he had been at ground zero.

"Oh Daniel," she said again, kneeling besides him, ignoring the shattered crystal that had been the dais that cut into her knees like glass. She could tell that her meager medical expertise was no match for what had been done to him.

"Do something," Jack said softly.

"I can’t," Sam said softly, feeling Daniel’s throat for a pulse. She counted at least three obvious bullet holes, all centered around his chest area, turning his shirt into a soggy mess.

"There must be something…"Jack said, sounding distraught.

She shook her head, her tears beginning to fall.

"He’s dying, Jack," she said, unaware that she had used his first name.

He fell to his knees besides her, aware of Teal’c standing over them both like a massive statue.

"Maybe one of the symbionts…" he said urgently, his hand over the bloody mess that had been Daniel’s chest. "Selmac," he roared "are any of them still alive?"

"Two, barely," Selmac shouted back. He was skidding to a halt next to them within moments, his face grave. "These two," he said, offering two still forms to Sam.

"Arran," Diyonne said, snatching the smaller symbiont from his hand. "He is like mother, insatiably curious. If they survive, Daniel will need someone like that."

"If they survive," Tofu said sadly, opening Daniels mouth wide. "He doesn’t look as if he can even move, let alone cure Daniel."

"He will," she said fiercely. "From what I can tell from half a days blending, he is like family, so for our host’s sake, he’d better."

"Indeed," Teal’c said, crouching down to their level. "I also believe he knows Daniel offers his last chance of survival as well," he continued softly. "Look."

As they watched, the tiny golden symbiont carefully made his way into Daniel’s mouth, and into the back of his throat.

Daniel moaned slightly as the pain of the symbiont boring through to his brain surpassed even the pain of dying, and then was still again.

"Let’s get him home people," Jack O’Neill said, in charge again. Teal’c leaned forwards and gathered Daniel in his strong arms. "It will be my pleasure, O’Neill," he said.

"What about the Nit?" Ter’l asked, staring at the ruins of the book of light dejectedly. "They deserve to pay for what they have done."

"And so they shall," Jack said grimly, leading them back into the cobwebbed hallway towards the crypt. "Listen."

Far in the distance, they could hear light popping sounds as SG2 and 3 stormed the catacombs of the Nit.

"The radio still isn’t working," Jack said, disgusted. "So try not to get yourselves shot."

"One of us is more than enough," Selmac said bitterly, looking at Daniel. "Gods protect us from ignorant people who destroy what they fear rather than learn from it."

"Hear, hear," Jack said, slowly leading them back towards the cave. "Let’s go home."

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

"So the book of Nit wasn’t a myth after all," General Hammond said a day later, looking around at the six people sat at the briefing room table.

"No it wasn’t," O’Neill said slowly, idly tearing a copy of his mission report to shreds. 

"Widgit was there, and the book was there. Unfortunately so were a handful of excessively paranoid descendants of the original Nit lot, who wanted nothing to do with us."

"It is understandable now, sir," Carter broke in. "The Nit had been a formidable force about a week prior to our visit. Unfortunately one of the minions in Lord Wu’s court, a Gou’ald called N’tall had also been working on the location of the book. We believe he had a spy on the Tok’ra homeworld who told him of our interest in NG7 F99 and…"

O’Neill held up his hand. "NG7 F99?"

"The Nit sir," Carter said.

"Ah. Pray continue." She gave him an amused glance. "Yes sir."

She turned back to General Hammond. "As I was saying sir, this Gou’ald N’tall decided to beat us too the punch, and steal the book before us."

"Typical Gou’ald," Anise spat, curling up on her chair with a scowl.

"Yes, well, as happened with the Colonel and the others, the stargate sat at the edge of the cliff took its usual toll, killing off all of N’tall’s Jaffa. Somehow he survived, and when he was feeling better, decided to exact his revenge on the Nit."

"Poor people," Hammond muttered, feeling the first stirrings of sympathy.

"The Nit eventually managed to kill N’tall," Carter continued, " but not before he had managed to kill a large number of them."

"Those were the bodies we saw in the crypt." Ter’l said.

Carter nodded. "They were."

"Indeed they were," Teal’c agreed, nodding. "We can see now why the Nit took such great exception to a large group of Tok’ra and their sympathetic human slaves arriving barely days later."

" Where were the Jaffa?" O’Neill suddenly asked, eyeing Sam carefully. "If what they told you was true, then the base of that mountain should have been ringed with bodies."

"They burnt them," a familiar voice said from the doorway.

"Daniel," Jack said, pushing a spare chair towards the linguist. "Welcome back."

"Glad to be back," Daniel said with a grin. "Sorry I'm late," he said apologetically to General Hammond. "Arran and I got stuck in a discussion on whether ancient Abyssinian text was similar to that found in Mesopotamia a century ago and…"

"Woah," Jack said with a chuckle. "Nice to know that you two are getting along so well, but can we stick to the subject at hand?"

Daniel nodded a rueful smile on his face. "Oh, sorry. As I was saying when I came in, the Nit burnt the bodies, N’tall’s included. Their belief is similar to that of…" He hesitated at Hammonds scowl. "Suffice it to say, they believed that they would go through to the afterlife disfigured for ever."

"Okay then," General Hammond said, leaning back in his chair. "We have touched on why the Tok’ra were not made welcome. Now I want to know why they considered Wadjet a threat."

"Their ancestors thought she had been a Gou’ald after all," Sam said sadly. "The idea was reinforced when she had her children. The Nit thought she intended to enslave them, meanwhile all she wanted to do was continue her race."

"So they put everyone in urns and sealed them off." Daniel said.

"The descendants of the original Nit were told only to guard the Book. The knowledge that Wadjet and her offspring existed was deliberately lost centuries ago. When the descendants, noticeably Nadia and Shaheen, found the alcove we had uncovered, they destroyed it out of a sense of fear."

"So now what?" General Hammond asked Selmac.

"Anise, Ter’l and I go back to the Tok’ra high council and report on our findings," he said.

"And tell them we failed," Ter’l said bitterly. "We failed to get the book, we failed to save Wadjet, and most importantly, we failed to find out if Wadjet did actually have the knowledge on how the stargates worked."

"She didn’t," Sam said softly. "She did, however, invent the transportation rings."

" She did?" Anise asked, sitting up straight.

Sam nodded grinning. "And if you’re really nice to Diyonne, she’ll tell you how. "

"I thought the Tok’ra knew how the rings worked," Daniel asked, surprised.

"No," Selmac smiled. "We use them, but we have never been able to duplicate them."

"Until now," Sam said. "It isn’t what you had hoped for, Ter’l, but…"

His smile was warm. "I’ll take it, he said. "At least our adventure wasn’t a total loss."

"Oh I wouldn’t say that," Daniel said from his place next to the coffee pot. "I wouldn’t say that at all." He looked at Ter’l, his eyes sparkling. "You know what happens when you leave a linguist alone in a room for a couple of hours with nothing for company but an ancient book?"

"You copied it?" Ter’l breathed.

Daniel smiled broadly. "Yep. I always have my notebook and a pencil tucked away in my vest pocket when I go on missions, just in case." He shrugged. "I didn’t get all of it, unfortunately, but most of it. In fact, I was still copying when that Shaheen guy decided to try out one of our P90’s on me. Unfortunately, the book got in his way. You should have seen his expression when he realized what he had done."

"One of those P90’s in a novices hands," Jack said slowly, shaking his head. "I’m surprised he hit you at all."

"Oh he didn’t." Daniel said calmly. "He had to stand real close to do that."

The silence was total.

"Why didn’t you run?" Sam asked at last.

"I was preoccupied in putting my notebook back into my vest pocket," Daniel said. "I figured out that even if I did run, he would have got me anyway so…"

"You protected the knowledge," Ter’l said, coming to his defense.

"That’s a piss-poor excuse for being a fool," Jack said darkly, "But I’ll let it ride, for now." But his eyes told the linguist he was far from in the clear.

"So now what?" General Hammond asked, clearly not having a clue.

Selmac stood and stretched. "I, Anise and Ter’l need to report back to the high council as to what has transpired."

"And I and Teal’c have two new recruits to train," Tofu said coolly.

"Introduce yourselves to the General.

To General Hammond’s amazement, two new personalities emerged from the familiar people he knew so well.

Carter first, or the person who now co-habited her body. "I am Diyonne, daughter of Wadjet." 

She bowed her head regally. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance."

"And I yours," Hammond said, recovering nicely.

"And I am Arran," the symbiont sharing Daniel said, speaking to the bottom of an empty coffee cup. 

"Hey, this stuff is nice."

" I’m not surprised," General Hammond said dryly. "Doctor Jackson is addicted to the stuff."

Two mischievous blue eyes looked up at the general.

Daniel’s eyes, but not Daniel’s intelligence.

"I could cure this addiction," he said thoughtfully, "but I won’t."

'''

And so a new SG1 team was born, to go on into history as the greatest defenders of earth ever seen.

They also became a much needed bridge between the Tok’ra and the Tau’ri, strengthening what was fast becoming a weak partnership, and throughout all the trials and tribulations fighting the Gou’ald caused, they never lost their sense of humor.

*Einde

BeTaTested by CiGiK.

*****Reader's RAVES*****

Carole
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I was reading your story Tok'ra, Tok'ra, and More Tok'ra, very nice.

Sloan

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